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Asked: 2026-06-15T17:19:13+00:00

I am coming from Microsoft world so please bear with me on this. I

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I am coming from Microsoft world so please bear with me on this. I was told I could install node.js and use that as a web server instead of IIS. This is a very small business application. In IIS I can create virtual directory and point to the location of the web page and everything works just fine. Based on very little I read, I have few questions;

  1. Is it possible to run node js as a windows service or any other form so that it runs for ever? I did find the forever package that I think I can use.
  2. In IIS, I can create virtual directory set the port and thats it, I have myself a website.

I do not see any examples where I can use a directory where I have a web page, written in java script and point it to run as a web site. All the examples have some thing like server.js and that runs and routes the call. what is the other way to host web sites and use node.js to simple run as a fast web server.

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  1. Editorial Team

    I was told I could install node.js and use that as a web server instead of IIS.

    This is true, but as you already found out then you are in charge of providing for things that IIS was already doing for you (e.g. automatically restart on reboot, or on crashes, hosting multiple sites by creating virtual folders, et cetera.)

    You can indeed get all of these things worked out in Node.js and there are several libraries that help on each of these areas. It’s not too hard but you’ll need to do a bit of researching.

    You can also run Node.js behind IIS. Take a look at iisnode http://tomasz.janczuk.org/2011/08/hosting-nodejs-applications-in-iis-on.html

    Is it possible to run node js as a windows service or any other form so
    that it runs for ever?

    The library Forever takes care of restarting the site when it crashes…but I don’t know if you can run it as a Windows Service. I haven’t tried that.

    In IIS, I can create virtual directory set the port and thats it,
    I have myself a website.

    I assume you are talking about a site that serves static HTML files, right? If that’s the case that’s very easy to support in Node.js either writing your own web server or using Express.js to serve static files.

    I do not see any examples where I can use a directory where I have a web page,
    written in java script and point it to run as a web site. All the examples
    have some thing like server.js and that runs and routes the call.

    Here is an extremely simple example to serve plain HTML files in Node.js https://gist.github.com/2573391 Don’t use this in production, though. It’s just an example and it does not have any kind of error handling or security.

    what is the other way to host web sites and use node.js to simple run
    as a fast web server.

    As others have said, you should look into Express.js http://expressjs.com/ It provides some of the infrastructure that you are very likely going to need when building traditional web sites.

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